and even more almost certainly illegal in Australia, given Australia's history of overly tough (if not necessarily enforced) copyright law (copying a TV show to VHS cassette, anyone?).

Quite tough laws indeed, although they have started to loosen it up. But yes, the conduct described in this thread remains illegal in Australia.The Copyright Act was significantly amended late last year.Format-shifting of music is now permitted, as is video/movies that are in analog format (i.e VHS tapes, but NOT DVDs).

Recording a TV show for personal use is now allowed (albeit the copy must be erased/deleted after a single viewing).

If he is specifically linking to files (or download pages) which are obviously 'warez' then it is illegal and he does carry responsibility.[right][snapback]158846[/snapback][/right]

Indeed. Just to reinforce the point, the legal authority in Australia is Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd v Cooper where the court held that hyperlinking to sites that host pirated material amounts to an authorisation to infringe copyright.

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Although Cooper didn't host pirated recordings per se, he breached the law by creating hyperlinks to sites that had infringing sound recordings.

Your friend is exposing himself to potentially significant monetary damages and compensation.